'I told him to take him back!': Chilling moment tearful Robert Thompson blames Jon Venables for killing James Bulger - as the murdered boy's mother reveals she still sets a seat for him at Christmas... 25 years after his death

Robert Thompson and Jon Venables murdered James Bulger in February 1993

Victim's mother Denise Fergus still lays a place for him at the dinner table

She has opened up her Merseyside home to show how she keeps memories alive

Police interviews reveal the boys blamed each other for their hideous crimes

New documentary James Bulger: A Mother's Story looked back 25 years on

The haunting voice of James Bulger murderer Robert Thompson was heard desperately blaming his friend Jon Venables for the toddler's death in chilling police tapes aired in a documentary last night.

Interviews with detectives revealed Thompson burst into tears after confessing, insisting he 'told Venables to take Bulger back'.

It has been 25 years since the two-year-old was snatched from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, tortured and murdered by the two boys.

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Jon Venables (left) and Robert Thompson (right) were just 10 years old when they carried out one of the most infamous murders in British criminal history

Pictured: James Bulger before his death in Bootle, Merseyside in February 1993

As the anniversary of his death approaches, a new ITV documentary yesterday took a look back at the crime that shocked the nation.

James Bulger's mother Denise Fergus also revealed how she keeps her son's memory alive - and even sets an empty place for him at the Christmas dinner table.

The documentary saw Mrs Fergus open up her home, inviting broadcaster Sir Trevor McDonald to see how she remembers James.

Last night's new ITV documentary with murdered toddler James Bugler's mother (pictured) reveals she still sets a place for him at the Christmas dinner table - 25 years after he was brutally tortured and murdered

Meanwhile disturbing police tapes showed how the child killers blamed each other, with Thompson bursting into tears after his confession.

He told detectives: 'He [Venables] was walking around the Strand. He grabbed hold of the baby's hand and just walked around the Strand.

'I told him to take him back. I'm getting all the blame. I'm going to get all the blame.'

'So he turned around and said 'I did kill James, will you tell his mummy I'm sorry'. I will always remember those words and that was a big turning point.'

James Bulger: A Mother's Story with Trevor McDonald saw his mother point to a large picture of James in her living room, saying he is 'never far from conversation, whether it's Christmas or not'.

She added: 'That's why he's still here. I always say that the day I stop speaking about him is the day I join him. He'll always be with me.'

Mrs Fergus reflected on his 'cheeky mannerisms' and 'loving' nature for the ITV documentary.

As part of the new ITV documentary, Denise Fergus (pictured with Sir Trevor McDonald) opened up her home, inviting broadcaster Sir Trevor McDonald to see how she keeps her toddler's memory alive

She told him: 'When we decorate that wall we go around [his picture].'

There were robins dotted around the family home, which she said are a symbol of her son.

She explained: 'All the robins they mean so much because every time I see a robin I say to Stewart. There's James come to see me. I try to get pictures every time I see them.'

As the documentary continued, Mrs Fergus revealed she was 'relieved' when the two young boys who turned out to be her son's killers walked off with him - assuming they would not harm another child.

She was 'almost positive' she was going to get her little boy back when it emerged it was two youngsters not adults that had abducted her son.

Thompson and Venables became the youngest killers in modern British history when they were convicted of James' murder in late 1993.

She told the documentary: 'I had a sigh of relief to be honest with you because he wasn't with an adult, he was with two kids.

'I thought, kids aren't going to harm another child, so that's what kept me sane really, thinking, I was almost positive I was going to get James back alive and well.'

In a new heart-wrenching interview Denise Fergus explained she was 'almost positive' she was going to get her little boy (pictured) back when she knew it was children who abducted him

Denise Fergus had shared photos of herself and her son James, before he was tragically murdered

James Bulger (pictured): A Mother's Story with Trevor McDonald looked back at the crime that shocked the nation - 25 years on

She described the decision to go to the Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle as 'last-minute' and says it was the first time James was allowed out of his buggy.

She said: 'He was out of his buggy – James was never out of his buggy so he felt a bit of freedom.

'I let go of his hand just for a moment to get my purse out of my bag.'

But when she realised he had gone she started panicking, running from shop to shop asking where he was.

She added: 'I was that distraught that one of the staff said to me, 'calm down, come and have a cup of coffee'.

'And I said to him, 'a cup of coffee isn't going to help me get my son back'.'

During the hour-long documentary Mrs Fergus also relieved the nightmare moment she was told her son's body had been found three miles from where he disappeared at the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, Merseyside.

Police officers who dealt with the crime describe her 'dropping to the floor in total distress', with another branding it 'the worst thing I've ever seen'.

Mrs Fergus said: 'I just blanked out. I just remember when I came round seeing a load of people around me.

'I'm thinking it can't be true, it can't be happening. One minute they're going to come through that door and say they've made a massive mistake.'

The programme also uncovered previously unseen pictures of her and her son before his death.

It explored her attempts to forgive herself for letting go of his hand for just a split second as she reached to pay for her shopping - to find he had vanished forever.

Mrs Fergus hopes to send out a message of hope with James Bulger: A Mother's Story

During the hour-long documentary Mrs Fergus also relieved the nightmare moment she was told her son's body (pictured before his death) had been found three miles from where he disappeared at the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, Merseyside

On a trip to the toddler's grave, she says: 'I had to not forget about James.

'He'll always be there, he'll always be a part of my life and he'll always be my son. But I had to learn to live with it.'

Sir Trevor also interviewed Lorna Brown, who at the age of 43, was one of the 28 people who saw James being led around the streets of Bootle by Thompson and Venables.

He explains explained Ms Brown saw the three boys yards away from the shopping centre where he was taken.

Asked how she remembers the incident, she replies: 'I remember that day very clearly.

'I was walking up this street and I noticed two boys with a little boy crossing just over there, and I don't know, I just felt a bit uneasy about the little boy.'

Ms Brown first realised the importance of what she had seen when a member of her church told her a boy had been found dead on the railway tracks.

He (pictured) was abducted and taken to a railway line to be tortured by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson

The 1993 murder of James (pictured) led to an outpouring of public grief and shock

When it all sunk in, she fell into a deep depression, which she claims 'is still there'.

She added: 'My heart missed a beat then. And I thought, 'could that have been the ones I've seen?'

Ms Brown said she 'doesn't know' if she would have done something 'knowing what she knows now'.

Meanwhile James' mother told the documentary she doesn't blame the people who saw her injured son with his two killers.

She said: I can't blame them people, I think they've got enough blame inside them. I don't blame them whatsoever.

'There's only two people to blame in this. They were there at the beginning and they were there at the end.'

Recalling the boys' sentencing, Mrs Fergus spoke poignantly of 'wanting to scream at them' as they 'laughed and joked with each other' in the dock.

Mrs Fergus visited the grave of her son with Sir Trevor McDonald for the ITV documentary

Mrs Fergus discussed her son's tragic death with Sir Trevor McDonald on the 25th anniversary of his death

But while she originally said she never wanted the boys jailed for the rest of their lives, she confessed: 'I've never had justice for James'.

She said: 'I did say that if they weren't punished properly, then they would go on to re-offend — and that's exactly what's happened.'

When Thompson and Venables were released with new identities in 2001, they were banned from contacting the Bulger family or going to Merseyside.

But flouting the rules, Venables was allegedly seen 'drinking in Liverpool' and 'going to Everton games'.

Mrs Fergus spoke of her disgust at the idea of him being in the same place as members of her family, particularly her nieces and nephews.

She told documentary makers: 'At any time they could have been speaking to him.

'Even worse, he could have gone home and dated one of them. All this was going round in my head. How could they do this.'

Viewers took to social media in their thousands to show their support for Denise Fergus and disgust that his two killers were allowed to walk free after just eight years.

The new documentary came as Venables, now 36, was jailed for 40 months after police found he was caught with a catalogue of child sex images and a so-called 'paedophiles' manual'.

It is the second time he has been caught with child abuse material since he was freed from custody for James' murder.

Mrs Fergus, who attended the hearing along with James's father Ralph Bulger, branded the sentence as a 'farce'.

The documentary also saw her discuss her desire to get something positive out of his awful murder with the charity she set up.

The 50-year-old mother to three more sons said: 'What I want to do is turn something so negative, that happened to James, into something positive.'

The haunting CCTV image shows James Bulger walking hand-in-hand in the Merseyside shopping centre with his killer

She founded the James Bulger Memorial Trust in his name to help families who have been victims of crime or bullying with respite and holiday breaks.

She added: 'I didn't want James just to be remember as the murdered child.

'So I thought if I could do something positive and something where I'm helping other kids and other families. It's all worth the while.'

Her appearance on ITV's James Bulger: A Mother's Story comes amid a wave of outrage following Channel 4's controversial documentary 'The Bulger Killers: Was Justice Done?' that aired on Monday night.

Writing on Twitter Mrs Fergus said: 'Just to let you know that even though footage was used of me on the Channel 4 programme, I had no part in it. My documentary is on Thursday on ITV with Sir Trevor McDonald.'

Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were just 10 years old when they brutally murdered the toddler in a crime that shocked Britain in February 1993.

The pair were Britain's youngest killers for 250 years and remain only two of six people with lifetime anonymity in the country.

Anniversary of Bulger murder sees calls for public inquiry rocket

Earlier this year James Bulger's mother demanded a public inquiry into her son's murder investigation.

Denise Fergus launched a parliamentary petition calling for a second look at Jon Venables release and subsequent reoffending, claiming 'a number of issues have been swept under the carpet'.

In the days after she shared a link to the petition on Twitter, it had only reached a few thousand signatures.

But with the 25th anniversary of the toddler's murder approaching and both an ITV and Channel 4 documentary on the crimes in one week, the petition now has well over 50,000 signatures.

It reads: 'Throughout the conduct of the case there have been a number of issues that have been swept under the carpet. It's high time they were investigated.

'One mystery surrounding the murder of James Bulger case is why the 'experts' insisted that Jon Venables was rehabilitated.

'The report of the Prison Service into an incident at Red Bank secure unit has not been published. It is time to examine all this.'

If the petition reaches 100,000 signatures it would be considered for debate in Parliament.

The C4 documentary featured interviews with the killers' defence solicitors, prosecutors and journalists who covered the case - but many watching took exception to the suggestion the boys were too young to face trial at the age of 10.

Laurence Lee, Venables' solicitor, and Dominic Lloyd, who defended Thompson during the trial at Preston Crown Court, gave their opinions on the case on the show.

Mr Lloyd discussed his attempt to get the trial thrown out after he argued the boys could not have a fair trial because the jury had been prejudiced following media reports.

He said the boys would not have been prosecuted if they would have committed the crime a few months earlier because the age of criminality in England is 10.

Mr Lloyd said: 'If this offence happened a few months earlier it would not have been possible to prosecute Robert and Jon.

'They were just over the age where you can be prosecuted and I think in that type of case that has to be weighed down firmly in favour of rehabilitation.

'To do the contrary is to effectively condemn them to life at 10 years of age. Not something I'm comfortable with at all.'

Meanwhile, journalist Blake Morrison, who covered the trial for the New Yorker, spoke about his realisation the defendants were just 'two small boys'.

Police search the train track where James Bulger's body was found in 1993

Jamie Bulger, pictured, was killed 25 years ago next week. The tale of two 10-year-olds killing the two-year-old shocked the nation

He said: 'To look at them in the court room to hear them on tapes was to realise that they were small boys, however disturbed, they were small boys.

'It hardened my feelings that we should not be treating children in the same way we treat our adults and however we judge their crimes.

'We should not do it in the way it was done in the Bulger case.'

His comment led to anger from viewers who felt he was sympathising with the boys who tortured and killed the toddler after abducting him from the Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, Merseyside.

The boys were convicted of brutally murdering two-year-old James after abducting him from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, in February 1993.

The judge described the murder as an act of 'unparalleled evil and brutality' and the two youngsters were both handed eight-year sentences.

But the programme was slammed by some viewers on Twitter who were perplexed some people on the show appeared to defend the boys.

Footage showed the boys being driven to court after they were charged with murdering James Bulger

Their arrests sparked outrage across the country and people tried to attack the van which was transporting the youngsters

TIMELINE: JAMES BULGER'S MURDER AND THE CONVICTION OF TWO KILLERS

1993

February 12: Two-year-old James Bulger is snatched during a shopping trip to the Strand shopping centre, in Bootle, Merseyside.

February 14: The toddler's battered body is found by children playing on a freight railway line 200 yards from Walton Lane police station, Liverpool, and more than two miles from the Strand shopping centre.

February 18: Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both 10-year-olds, are arrested in connection with the murder of James, and later charged. They are the youngest to be charged with murder in the 20th century.

February 22: There are violent scenes outside South Sefton Magistrates' Court in Bootle, when the two primary school pupils, then known as Child A and Child B, make their first appearance.

November 24: Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, now both aged 11, are convicted of James Bulger's murder following a 17-day trial at Preston Crown Court. They are ordered to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure, the normal substitute sentence for life imprisonment when the offender is a juvenile.

1994

July: The eight year sentence tariff set by the trial judge, which has already been increased to 10 years by Lord Chief Justice Lord Taylor of Gosforth, is increased again to 15 years by the Home Secretary Michael Howard.

1997

June: The Law Lords rule by a majority that Mr Howard has acted illegally in raising the boys' tariff.

1999

March: The European Commission on Human Rights finds that Thompson and Venables were denied a fair trial and fair sentencing by an impartial and independent tribunal.

2000

March: Home Secretary Jack Straw says he will not set a date for Thompson and Venables' release.

October: Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf reinstates the trial judge's original tariff, paving the way for their release.

2001

January: James Bulger's killers win an unprecedented court order from High Court judge Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss which grants them anonymity for the rest of their lives.

June: Thompson and Venables are freed under new identities.

2008

September: Venables is arrested on suspicion of affray after he and another man become involved in a drunken street fight. He is given a formal warning by the Probation Service about breaching the good behaviour expected of him as a condition of his licence.

Later the same year he is cautioned for possession of cocaine after he was found with a small amount of the class A drug, which was said to be for personal use. The public remains unaware of both offences until 2010.

2010

March 2: Venables is returned to prison after breaching the terms of his release, the Ministry of Justice says. It kick-starts frenzied media speculation over the nature of the alleged breach.

April 16: Prosecutors handed a police file over the latest allegations.

June 21: A judge at the Old Bailey lifts media restrictions, allowing it to be reported that Venables has been charged with downloading and distributing child pornography.

July 23: Venables pleads guilty to the charges. He is sentenced to two years in prison. James Bulger's mother Denise Fergus attacks the length of sentence as 'simply not enough'.

July 30: A judge rules Venables' new identity must be kept secret because of the 'compelling evidence' of a threat to his safety, saying 'unpopular' defendants had as much right to protection from retribution as anyone else.

2013

April 26: Two users of social media who breached the injunction banning the revelation of the new identities of Venables and Thompson receive suspended jail sentences.

July 4: Sources reveal Venables has been granted parole.

2017

Veneables is in prison again after allegedly being caught with indecent images of children.

2018

January: He is charged with possession of child porn and awaiting trial